Charles Napier Sturt

Sturt Expedition

Two years after the return of Eyre, Captain
Charles Napier Sturt, the famous discoverer of the Darling
and Murray, wrote to Lord Stanley offering to conduct an
expedition into the heart of Australia. His offer was
accepted ; and in May, 1844, a well equipped party of 16
persons was ready to start from the banks of the Darling
River. Places which Sturt had explored 16 years before ,
when they were a deep and unknown solitude, were now
covered with flocks and cattle; and he could use , as the
starting place of this expedition, the furthest point he
had reached in that of 1828. Mr Poole went with him as a
surveyor, Mr Browne as surgeon an the draughtsman was Mr J
Mc Douall Stuart, who, in this expedition, received a
splendid training for his own great discoveries of
subsequent years. Following the Darling, they reached
Laidley's Ponds, passed near Lake Cawndilla and then
struck northward for the interior. The country was very
bare( one dead level of cheerless desert) and when they
reached a few hills which they called Stanley Range,
Sturt, who ascended to one of the summits, could see
nothing hopeful in prospect. In this region he had to be
very careful how he advanced, for he had with him 11
horses, 30 bullocks, 200 sheep and water for a great
multitude could with difficulty be procured. He had always
to ride forward and find a creek or pond of sufficient
size, as the next place of encampment, before allowing the
expedition to move on; and as water was often very
difficult to find, his progress was but slow. Forunately
for the party, it was the winter season and a few of the
little creeks had a moderate supply of water. But after
they had reached a chain of hills, which Sturt called the
Grey Range, the warm season was already upon them. The
summer of 1844 was one of the most intense on record; and,
in these vast interior plains of sand, under the fiery
glare of the sum, the earth seemed to burn like plates of
metal; it split the hoofs of the horses; it scorched the
shoes and feet of the men; it dried up the water from the
creeks and pools and left all the country parched and full
of cracks. Sturt spent a time of great anxiety, for the
streams around were rapidly disappearing; and when all the
water had been dried up, the prospects of his party would,
indeed, be gloomy. His relief was great when Mr Poole
found a creek in a rocky basin, whose water seemed to have
a perennial flow. Sturt moved forward , and formed his
depot beside the stream; and here he was forced to remain
for 6 months. For it appeared as though he had entered a
trap; the country before him was absolutely without water,
so that he could not advance; while the creeks behind him
were now only dry courses and it was hopeless to think of
returning. He made many attempts to escape , and struck
out into the country in all directions: in one of his
efforts , if he had gone only 30 miles further , he would
have found the fine stream of Cooper's Creek, in which
there was sufficient water for the party; but hunger and
thirst forced him to return to the depot. He followed down
the creek on which they were encamped, but found that,
after a course of 29 miles , it lost itself in the
sand.

Death of Mr Poole

Meantime the travellers passed a summer such as few men had
ever experienced. The heat was sometimes as high as 130 degrees
in the shade and in the sun was altogether intolerable. They
were unable to write, as the ink dried at once on their pens;
their combs split; their nails became brittle and readily broke
and if they touched a piece of metal, it blistered their
fingers. In their extremity they dug an underground room, deep
enough to be beyond the dreadful furnace-glow above. Here they
passed many a long day, as month after month passed without a
shower of rain. Sometimes they watched the clouds gather and
they could hear the distant roll of thunder, bit there fell
not drop to refresh the dry and dusty desert. The party
began to grow thin and weak; Mr Poole became ill with scurvy,
and, from day to day, he sank rapidly. At length, when the
winter was again approaching, a gentle shower moistened the
plain; and, as the only chance of saving the life of poole,
half of the party was sent to carry him quickly back to the
Darling. They had gone only a fe hours when a messenger
returned with the news he was already dead. The mournful
cavalade returned, beaqring his remains and a grave was dug in
the wilderness. A tree close by, on which his intials were cut,
formed the only memorial to the hapless explorer.

Journey to the Centre

Shortly afterwards there came a succession of wet days and
as there was now an abundance of water, the whole party once
more set off; and having travelled north-west for 61 miles
further, they formed a new depot and made excursions to explore
the country in the neighbourhood. McDouall Stuart crossed over
to Lake Torrens; while Sturt, with Dr Browne and three men ,
pushing to the north, discovered the Strzelecki Creek, a stream
which flows through very agreeable country. But as they
proceeded further to the north their troubles began agian; they
came upon a region covered with hill after hill of fiery red
sand, amid which lay lagoons of salt and bitter water. They
toiled over this weary country in hopes that a change for the
better might soon appear; but when they reached the last hill,
they had the mortification to see a great plain, barren,
monotonous and dreary, stretching with a purple glare as far as
the eye could reach on every side. This plain was called by
Sturt the "Stony Desert", for, on descending, he found it
covered with innumerable pieces of quartz and sandstone, among
which the horses wearily stumbled. Sturt wished to penetrate as
far as the tropic of Capricorn; but summer was again at hand,
their water was failing and they could find neither stream nor
pool. When the madness of any further advance became apparent,
Sturt, with his head buried in his hands, sat for an hour in
bitter disappointment. AFter toiling so far , and reaching
within 150 miles of his destination, to be turned back for the
want of little water was a misfortune very hard to bear, and,
but for his companions, he would have still gone forward and
perished. As they hastened back their water was exhausted, and
they were often in danger of being buried by moving hills of
sand; but at length they reached the depot, having traversed
800 miles during the eight weeks of their absence.

Sturt Pays a High Price

It was not long before Sturt started again, taking with him
McDouall Stuart as his companion. On this trip he suffered the
same hardships, but had the satisfaction of discovering a
magnificent stream, which he called Cooper's Creek. On crossing
this creek, he again entered the Stony Desert, and was once
more compelled relunctantly to retrace his steps. When he
reached the depot he was utterly worn out. He lay in bed for a
long time, tnederly nursed by his companions; and when the
whole party set out for the settled districts, he had to be
lifted in and out of the dray in which he was carried. As they
neared their homes his sight began to fail. The glare of the
burning sands had destroyed his eyes and he passed the
remainder of his days in darkness. His reports of the arid
country gave rise to the opinion that the interior of Australia
is one vast desert; but this was afterwards found to be far
from correct.